Bad Wolf
by Moon Witch '96
Summary: That name has haunted him for all of his life. Reunion. One shot. Please Read and Review.


__BAD WOLF.__

Those two, seemingly mundane words had always haunted him. Of course, sometimes the Doctor thought he imagined it. Those words. Or really, not words, but name, title, message, but of course he hadn't known that for the longest time. For the cycle and endless repetition of that name had been meaningless and unknown. Scattered across his life. It had been chasing him for as long as he could remember. Even before he had run off with his granddaughter, the words 'Bad Wolf' had followed his footsteps. Seemingly always in every place he went, they found him.

…

 _He was running, away from his instructors all alone, having lost Koschei lost somewhere in the long, swaying red grass. All Theta could hear was the hot, humid air whistling through the sliver branches, a lilting music through the trees, and the rather unhappy, but dignified hollers of his teachers. He manged to sprint to the trees and quickly climbed, his thin, gangling limbs making quick work of grabbing the thin, sliver branches that rustled faintly with odd notes as he went higher. He found a high borough of thick intersecting branches,and leaned against the trunk, his not quite developed respiratory by-past system weak and making him take deep, uneven breathes._

 _Faintly, as he leaned forward to peek through the thick canopy of the ancient tree, he caught the words 'Bad Wolf' scratched into the bark._

…

 _ _He stared at the words, etched into a car, 'BAD WOLF', right pass her shoulder, a little to the left through the monitor of the TARDIS. Susan, (really, why did she insist on that silly name, it only served for her to blend in Sol 3, he didn't need to call her that all the time!), she was grinning, waving at him as she came back from that silly school that taught her nothing but incorrect rubbish. He sighed, and allowed her into the TARDIS. He gave her a good scolding and wonderful insight of perhaps going further than twentieth century Sol 3 for her education once they finished gathering the data they need from the century.__

 _ _With that in mind, he stepped out, ready to gather a bit more data... He did not see the two teachers behind him.__

…

At first he had dismissed it. Because of course, it was just gibberish, right? But after over a thousand years or so, one began to notice, that no, it was not just a mesh of words. Because it was everywhere. Scattered across the cosmos and time. Everywhere he went, anywhere, any-when, they were there to greet him.

…

 _ _There in the rocks, playing his clarinet, he caught sight of the words, BAD WOLF. Hmm, he thought raising a brow as Polly and Ben scrambled over it, waving their arms in alarm. He straighten, put away the instrument, and sighed. Trust them to bother him now, he had just been in the middle of playing his favorite song... He walked over at them, and tried not to squawk at the sight of a twenty foot wave of water heading for them, just beyond the two frighten humans moving quite quickly, and for a reason. He scrambled, nearly slipping on some green, slimy moss on the rocks, and took off at a steady run towards his time-ship.__

…

 _ _Tattooed into the neck of a man off to the side, the Doctor raised a brow at his choice. In plain black script, 'Bad Wolf'. The man straighten at his gaze, and nodded politely, his dark, serious eyes distant. He pushed off of his car without a word, and the Doctor glared after him as he rubbed away the dirt the man had left there. Liz called to him, and he looked over at her, shaking his head away from those know familiar words etched into the ape's skin just as it was forever etched into his mind.__

…

 _ _Sarah Jane was running along side him, and in her hands was a slip of paper, a fortune cookie fortune. The lucky numbers were 6 apple dash 6. It said BAD WOLF. She was hissing at him that next time he had an itching for take out, to choose a restaurant not run by aliens with a grudge against anyone with two hearts.__

…

 _ _He was screaming at Ardic to stop and consider the consequences as he rushed off into the 'BAD WOLF' shuttle. The young man, closer to a boy really, didn't. He only gave him a smile and slammed the door shut.__

…

 _ _The Rani was smirking, laughing and he was struggling and swearing he would stop her. Behind her, in the walls of her TARDIS, the words BAD WOLF were written, in big bold letters with a series of papers tacked about, as if she too, had seen the pattern about the cosmos in space. The Doctor nearly asked her about it, those words, those damn things that had followed him since he could remember. But somehow, he could not. Because those words, though others had seen them... They were meant for him. He couldn't explain it, nor could he really justify his feelings every time he saw them(fear, wonder, and a sense of security that stole his breathe).__

 _ _But 'Bad Wolf' was his.__

 __…

 _ _Ace was flinging her silly explosives behind her, and they were running for their lives. A pin he had never seen before on her jacket had a golden wolf, and the words BAD WOLF scrawled across it in big, bold lettering. When he asked her about it later, the girl simply shrugged, and mentioned a blonde woman in a blue leather jacket had told her it suited her.__

…

 _ _The Doctor felt the weight of the worlds on him as he received a transmission from Romona, and she was calling to all the reaches of time and space, calling for every Time Lord and Lady to come home. The name of the transmission? Code name, BAD WOLF.__

…

In all of his lives, the Doctor had come to accept those words, that name, as a comfort. Because it was constant in a life that was impossible to be so, especially in the wake of something as terrible as The Time War...

…

 _ _The Moment smirked at him, her eyes glittering.__

" _ _Ever heard of the Big BAD WOLF?"__

…

He watched it all die, and he forced his hand. He had locked all that pain and misery away for the sake of the Universe. And by some unlucky play of fate, he survived.

…

 _ _It was all a mess. The TARDIS. Him. It was all a mess he thought faintly as he stood. The scrap of fabric that once passed off as clothing fell in shreds around him. He walked shakily to the console and tried to soothe his Old Girl even as she cried in sheer agony. Weakly, he knew that he had to get out of her so she could repair herself. He sang to her in a hoarse voice, trying to stay in the comfort of her agonized song as the back of his head sounded so wretchedly empty. After only a minute, even if it felt as if a decade had passed, the console literally blew up in a mess of sparks and time-vortex.__

 _ _H__ _ _e__ _ _stumbled__ _ _back__ _ _, blindly, racing to the doors, pushing them outwards as he tried to see where he had landed in the time lock on the display as that too blew up. Jumping out of the TADIS, hands on his gun and sonic. A blinding yellow star greeted him. He stared, chest heaving, fingertips twitching as he looked around him, waiting for a Dalek, or a creature made by either side to combat the other, or even a Time-Lord gone mad. He was in an alley somewhere, a block of flats in front of him, dingy streets. Trash everywhere. There, in the middle of it, sat a girl, no older than five years old. She was human, a primate, from Sol 3 he thought faintly watching as she gaped at him. She stood up quickly, eying him warily, or really, the blaster at his side.__

 _ _Her straight, dirty blond hair fell to her waist in a tangled web, and she looked like she had a broken lip, and a black eye. She looked so beautiful; innocent with wide brown eyes and a hunched posture, so beautiful in the face of all he had faced for the past decade or so. Even in this dingy alley, even with the look of being someone's punching bag, he felt as if she was the most beautiful and frightening thing he had ever seen. Because she meant that had somehow been ejected from the Time-lock.__

" __'Lo."she said, a cockney accent thick, and her voice clear despite the fact that she looked so shocked.__

 _ _The Doctor took in a big gasp, having only noticed after she had spoken that he had stopped breathing at the sight of her.__

" _ _Mister, it's 'alright."said the girl, walking forward and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as he fell to his knees.__

 _ _The TARDIS closed the door behind him, and he sobbed into his hands.__

" _ _Mister? Did some big kid try to muck you up? Did you run away? I ran away."__

 _ _Unable to answer her more than a strangled sob, he only nodded. He looked up at her as she placed another hand on his other shoulder. Big, brown eyes, stared at him, and she narrowed said eyes.__

" _ _It's alright to run sometimes. Some bullies are too big, but we're all still growing, yeah?"__

 _ _She hugged him then, and he clung to the strange little girl until he had no tears left to shed. The words BAD WOLF had been carved messily and painfully into the girl's chest with a pocket knife, and she had shown the battle wound reluctantly. Once she had fallen asleep in his lap after telling him about her scrape in the park with an older kid, he soniced it away, leaving a faint scar that will be gone by the time she was older, and slipped into the TARDIS, running away just as she had said wasn't so bad to do.__

…

He had jumped into time and space. He had kept moving, running. Towards, or away from something he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he had to keep moving and try to save everything he could. Because he owed the universe that much, the sins of his people's War on his shoulders.

And then he met her.

That pink and yellow girl.

He said run.

She had ran, all across the expanse of Space and Time. Always with him. Holding his hand. Learning so rapidly and perfectly. She was a balm and a rock to cling to in the wake of his own Storm, of his self. Of that blasted Oncoming Storm that threatened to tare him apart in the end after the fires of the Time War had been locked away.

He fell in love.

He prayed and thought that she had as well.

And then she had created herself.

…

" _ _What've you done?"__

" _ _I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me."__

" _ _You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that."__

" _ _This is the Abomination! Exterminate!"__

" _ _I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."__

…

He died. And then he lived on. With her. Every step of the way. And he loved her more and more. Then he lost her. There, at Bad Wolf Bay. And he moved on. Because that was the only thing he could do. Even as his hearts bled and he begged the Universe beyond anything to bring her back.

…

" _ _You look like a ghost."__

 _ _"Hold on."__

 _ _"Can I …?"__

" _ _I'm still just an image. No touch."__

 _ _"Can't you come through properly?"__

 _ _"The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse."__

" _ _So?"__

" _ _Where are we? Where did the gap come out?"__

 _ _"We're in Norway."__

" _ _Norway. Right."__

" _ _About fifty miles out of Burgen. It's called 'Dårlig Ulv Stranden'."__

" _ _Dalek?"__

" _ _Dårlig. It's Norwegian for bad. This translates as Bad Wolf Bay."__

…

" _ _... I-I love you."__

" _ _Quite right, too. And I suppose, if it's one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler, I-"__

…

And he kept moving. Running, running, running. Towards any memory of her, towards danger, towards a death he was barely resisting to succumb to. But then he breathed. He grieved. And he thought of what she would have wanted for him. So he held his head high. He tried to be a man that was worthy of a woman forever lost. Even by his own design.

...

" _ _That woman. I can't remember."__

 _ _"Well, she never existed now."__

 _ _"No, but she said the stars. She said the stars are going out."__

 _ _"Yeah, but that world's gone."__

" _ _No, but she said it was all worlds. Every world. She said the darkness is coming even here."__

" _ _Who was she?"__

" _ _I don't know."__

" _ _What did she look like?"__

" _ _She was blonde."__

" _ _What was her name?"__

" _ _I don't know."__

" _ _Donna, what was her name?"__

" _ _But she told me to warn you. She said two words."__

" _ _What two words? What were they? What did she say?"__

" _ _Bad Wolf. Well, what does it mean?"__

…

 _ _He watched as she kissed him, and he turned away. Back into the TARDIS. He did not look back as his hearts shattered. He engraved the name still on the TARDIS's side into his mind to steady himself, his resolve. Because he knew that was the last time he would ever see BAD WOLF ever again. And she would be happier for it, safer for it. She would have someone that was partly him, that could have the life he could have, with silly things like curtains and a mortgage and while Rose Tyler would have her adventure, be the Defender of the Earth, some part of him would have__ _ _ **her**__ _ _, and that was worth it.__

…

He grieved again.

He died again.

…

" _ _You all right, mate?"__

" _ _Yeah."__

" _ _Too much to drink?"__

" _ _Something like that."__

" _ _Maybe it's time you went home."__

" _ _Yeah."__

" _ _Anyway, Happy New Year."__

" _ _And you. What year is this?"__

" _ _Blimey, how much have you had? 2005, January the first."__

" _ _2005\. Tell you what. I bet you're going to have a really great year."__

…

" _ _I don't want to go."__

 _ _And he thought of her face and everything she was to him as he did just exactly what he didn't want to do.__

…

He moved on, he loved again. He planned his own funeral... And he saw those words once again.

…

 _ _He sat in an old American dinner. He was thinking of what would happen at Lake Silencio. And then he saw it. There. On the table top. Scratched into the cheap vinyl. BAD WOLF. He traced his fingertips over it and tried not to think of the girl who had created and used that name for his sake. He failed. He laughed, and he wondered why everyone in the diner was staring at him until he realized that he was sobbing.__

" _ _Oi, you alright mate?"__

 _ _His head jerked up, so quickly it made__ _ _his neck__ _ _crack. There she was. Blue leather, holding out a hand, hovering in the air as she looked on at him with concern, looking worst for w__ _ _e__ _ _ar herself. He gaped. She handed him a napkin, ignoring her own scraps and bruises, the long scratch along her cheek, the dingy bandages across her arms and the brown stained bandanna across her thigh. He took it and whipped his eyes, blew his nose, feeling a flush creep onto his cheeks. How was it that even after three hundred years after he last saw her, did he feel like a teenager around her? She was fiddling with a device at her hip, checking her watch. A large gun that had many of the diner staring was resting on the small of her back.__

 _ _He placed her immediately, and knew that she was fighting her way to their last moments together.__

" _ _I'm fine. Just dust in my eye."he lied easily.__

 _ _She rose a dark brow. It seemed even if she didn't know he was the Doctor, she could catch him at it. She slid into the seat across from him, and offered her hand. He took it readily, and tried not to let out another sob.__

" _ _What's wrong?"she asked, and he blinked.__

" _You're beautiful you know that, brilliant too_. _Stopped to see what the man_ _ly_ _crying was all about._ _ _"he__ _ _blurted.__

 _ _She looked at him for a beat, blinked.__

" _ _Right... Look, mate, I hate to say this. But I'm stealing your pie."__

 _ _He looked at the pie he had bought out of curtsy. He picked up the plate, and handed it to her with trembling fingers. She took it, and grinned.__

" _ _Jumping from parallel to parallel does make one hungry. Thanks."she mused, saying the last part louder than the rest, and she used her free hand to devour the pie. She must of have thought he wouldn't hear her, but he did, Time Lord and all.__

 _ _He didn't respond. He only watched her. Their hands firmly together. Here she was, in a race across the multiverse, and she stopped in a random diner to comfort a stranger. That was Rose Tyler.__

" _ _I'm going to die."he answered finally, softly, mesmerized by her.__

 _ _She looked up, eyes flashing gold.__

" _ _I'm sorry. I died once. A long time ago, or at least... It felt that way. It's not the same, but I can relate a bit."__

 _ _He managed to smile. He could always do that for her.__

" _ _It's not so bad. I had a good run. Plus, I have a feeling I can beat it."__

 _ _She smiled. Tongue-in-teeth and he thought he would take her to the TARDIS and never let her go.__

" _ _That's the spirit. Fight the good fight. Good luck mate, and thanks for the pie."__

 _ _She patted his hand, and before he could let her leave, he pulled her down with strength, eagerness that should have shamed him as she landed in his lap, and gave her a swift snog, because, he was dying and all. She took it like a champ, leaning into the kiss easily. She tasted like apple pie, Rose, and a bit like Time. And then she left in a swirl of blue leather and as always she took a bit of him with her.__

…

The Doctor wondered if that was the last time he would ever see her name. He had not expected it then, and he had a feeling he would never really expect it. He lived. He breathed. He lied. He got married to a woman that he was not in love with, even if he did love her. He watched as he destroyed her parents. He watched as she left to the Library, and the circular paradox closed.

He grieved again, he moved on. He met his Impossible girl. He discover the truth of the Time War. And he died yet again. The Doctor was old now. He had yet to ever see that name again. Only in his memories. And he was not sure if he was sadden by that or glad of it.

BAD WOLF.

The Doctor froze, staring. There, scribbled into the side walk in chalk. He breathed, his chest heaving.

"Hello."her voice was soft, and even though tempered and slightly faded, her cockney accent was very present.

He turned, rapidly, his dark coat whipping around with him. There. Gold eyes met his. His hearts jumped into a rapid race, and she was staring, hair longer than the last time he saw her, blond and yellow, slightly past her waist in a slightly tangled mess. She had dirt on her face, and in her hand she held a sonic screwdriver of all things. She had those big hoop earrings she loved in her ears, and she looked a bit like she had when she had been five years old.

Rough, a bit scrapped up, but still the most beautiful and frightening thing he had ever seen. A smile was on her face, and she didn't look a day older than when he had last seen her.

"Hello."he said, after a beat.

She didn't move. She only looked at him, and sighed, running a hand to rub the back of her neck. A habit, he noticed with a jolt, that his previous self had adopted.

"I create myself."she said simply.

He nodded, hearts in throat as she stepped closer.

"I scattered the words across time and space. I see all of creation, all that must be, all that must come to past."she said carefully.

"I see."he muttered, and she shook her head in a chuckle as she carefully stuffed her sonic behind her ear.

She touched his face, and he tried not to fall to his knees before her.

"No. No, Doctor, you don't. I saw all that was going to happen there in the Game Station. I still see it sometimes. The entire complex of space and time. I am nine hundred and thirteen years old. I lived my life, I was the Defender of the Earth. The Valiant Child died in battle, and his name was John Noble. It came to past, the adventure that we could never have."

He leaned closer, his arms grabbing at her waist. He fumbled, and dug his hands tightly, relishing the warmth and the scent of apple-grass and Time as she leaned closer.

"I lived, I loved. I watch it all go to ash. And then I did it again. I crossed through the Void. I searched for you. Nearly seven hundred years I have looked for you."

"You have found me. I have lived without you for four hundred years. And all I can ask, with so many things I could say... Why have you looked for me?"he told her, and dragged her closer, so that they were pressed against each other.

She smiled again, and he returned the gesture.

"Because it does need saying."

He almost closed his eyes at those words, and he felt his hearts constrict. But he didn't dare, wanting nothing but to drink her all in, forever, until all he could see was her face.

"Rose Tyler, I love you."

She kissed him.

He kissed back.

And the part of his hearts that had shattered went back into place. His hands found themselves in her long, long hair, soft and wished nothing more but to fall into their kisses until he died. But, even he needed to breathe eventually. They stared into each other's eyes, gold locked with gray. It passed for an endless moment, and she lifted her head upwards, lips grazing his chin.

"No one has called me that for a very long time. I had almost forgotten... I am known as the BAD WOLF across all of Time and Space. I have lived through so much. I am old and when you knew me I was so young."she whispered against his lips.

Tears were in her golden eyes. And he could see the good bye.

"But you will always be Rose Tyler. My pink and yellow girl. My plus one. The Shake to my Shiver. My wonderful, my goddess, the BAD WOLF."

He smiled at her.

He grasped her hand.

And he said just one word;

"Run."

And she did, with him, despite his older appearance, or even her own youthful one. Despite somethings left unsaid... Despite the fact that they were both so different now. Just that single word was enough to send them to each other. Running towards the TARDIS. Running, always running. It was all they needed. All they needed as long as the other was right next to them.

And the name BAD WOLF haunted him no more.

For she was right there by his side.

Always.


End file.
